what words can i say
twelve hundred miles away?
you are still the girl
with the giant bubble in your mouth,
the sprayed-up bangs
and over-sized boys’ sneakers.
aren’t you?

now a mother like me
a young mother of three
and your pain hides behind your words
just as i hide mine in these poems.
will it wait there,
hidden in scripted messages,
until someone with the right
encryption has the power to release it?

what can i say
twelve hundred miles away?
these words are too late
for amends and lost time.
but i will still put them here
for you to remember the childhood
we shared, the happiness
that hides behind the words,
that, just like the pain,
will find its way out,
ready to release you
into the person you have always been
and always will be.